BSE Sensex gained 160 points in opening trade

Mumbai, Aug 20: Snapping the five sessions of down trend, the Sensex on Wednesday, Aug 20 inched up 160 points at 14,705 and Nifty by 24 points at 4,392 in the early trade following the positive cues from most of the Asian markets. The Indian bourses surged due to fresh buying at lower level in opening trade on strong Asian cues, led by realty and metal stocks, brokers said.

Asian stocks rebounded from a two-year low as Chinese shares surged on hopes for policies from Beijing to jumpstart growth. Back home, the BSE Mid-Cap index was up 0.77 per cent to 5,810.54 and the BSE Small-Cap index was up 0.65 pc at 7,058.23. Realty stocks, including Indiabulls Real Estate, gained 3.09 pc to Rs 320.70, Unitech up 2.55 pc to Rs 169.20 and DLF up 1.82 pc to Rs 509.20, were the front runners.

However, Mahindra&Mahindra was down 0.83 pc to Rs 556.55 and ONGC was down 0.33 pc to Rs 1,059.10.

While, Maruti Suzuki India was up 1.67 pc to Rs 626.50, Bharat Heavy Electricals was up 1.85 pc to Rs 1,709, State Bank of India was up 1.36 pc to Rs 1,463.50.

Reliance Communications rose 1.4 pc to Rs 405.40. The company on Tuesday, Aug 19 launched satellite television operation under the name Big TV. It will compete with Dish TV, state-owned Prasar Bharti's DD Direct, Sun TV's DTH arm and Tata Sky, a venture of the Tata Group and News Corp.

Foreign institutional investors (FIIs) were net equity sellers worth Rs 716.35 crore, while mutual funds purchased shares worth Rs 14.56 crore on Tuesday, Aug 19, according to provisional data on National Stock Exchange (NSE).

FIIs were net sellers of Rs 974.84 crore in the futures and options segment on the same day. They were net sellers of index futures to the tune of Rs 1,188.29 crore and purchased index options worth Rs 504.66 crore. They were net sellers of stock futures to the tune of Rs 328.63 crore and bought stock options worth Rs 37.43 crore.

UNI